Book Review :: How To Be Everything

First line: “If you’ve picked up this book, it’s probably because you’ve had trouble narrowing down ‘what you want to be’ to one thing.”

Growing up, I knew for certain I wanted to be a teacher, a lawyer, an architect. When I started college, I was in a program for architecture. When I graduated I received a degree in English and sports medicine. I also was only a few credits away from minors in nutrition, psychology and religion. I just loved to learn. There were very few classes I took that I didn’t devour. And the classes I didn’t like usually had more to do with the instructor and how he/she presented it than the material itself.

Since college, I’ve worked as a cast member for The Disney Store, a receptionist/administrative assistant, a high school English teacher, a technical writer, a coordinator of online learning, a webmaven, a book reviewer and a virtual assistant. Whenever I had to go through the torture of a job search, I didn’t know what to look for. I have a lot of skills–good skills–but I never had a specialization that helped determine the job title I needed to enter in the search engine. Heck, I didn’t even know what that job title was. So when I learned about Emilie Wapnick’s book How To Be Everything: A Guide for Those Who (Still)Don’t Know What They Want To Be When They Grow Up, I knew I had to read it.

How To Be Everything is a mix of therapy and self-help. Therapy in the sense that it’s reassuring to know there are other multipotentialites (someone with many interests and creative pursuits) out there. I’m not an alien. I don’t have career ADD–well, maybe I do, but others do as well, and there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, multipotentialites, in general, have some darn impressive superpowers: idea synthesis, rapid learning, adaptability, big picture thinking, and relating and translating. How To Be Everything is self-help in the sense that it provides exercises and activities to assist readers in identifying their goals and work styles and how to pursue them.

In true multipotentialite fashion, I have some characteristics several work styles: the Group Hug Approach–I’m definitely overwhelmed when there are too many disconnected projects–the Einstein Approach–there isn’t enough time for the hobbies I enjoy–and the Phoenix Approach–when I get obsessed with something, I want to know everything there is to know about it. The one that didn’t match my personality hardly at all was the Slash Approach. And ironically, that’s probably what best defines my current employment situation: webmaven/virtual assistant/freelance writer/….

How To Be Everything will hook any multipotentialite floundering for a foothold in a society that doesn’t quite recognize their strengths. It will provide direction for those grasping at job titles to enter in their search engines. Informally written but informationally-rich, How To Be Everything puts the audience at ease. And let’s face it, if you’re job searching, stress is probably at a pretty high level, so ease is welcome. Even if you aren’t job searching, having a sense of direction is reassuring; knowing you’re a member of the club is priceless. The reading goes quickly but to milk this gem for all it’s worth, bring your pencil and put some time into the questions and activities. I’m certainly discovering a rich pay-off.